“OF ALL THE ASPECTS OF OUR COLLECTIVE LIFE, NONE INTERESTED FREUD MORE THAN RELIGION”—FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISHOF FREUD’S THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSION, IN ORIGINAL CLOTH
FREUD, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1928. Octavo, original dark green cloth; uncut.
First edition in English of Freud’s examination of religious beliefs—“of all the aspects of our collective life, none interested Freud more than religion”—published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press in conjunction with the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
“Of all the aspects of our collective life, none interested Freud more than religion. He devoted three of his five major speculative writings to interpreting it—Totem and Taboo (Totem und Tabu, 1912-13), The Future of an Illusion (1927) and Moses and Monotheism (Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion, 1939)” (Norman, Freud ). In The Future of an Illusion, “Freud enumerated the human needs that lead people to construct religious beliefs, and addressed the question of whether humanity could learn to endure the hardships of life without recourse to the comfort of religion—a question that he hoped might one day be answered in the affirmative” (Norman Library 57). First edition in English: published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press in conjunction with the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Issued as part of the International Psycho-Analytical Library, which was edited by Ernest Jones, Freud’s friend and official biographer. First published in German in 1927, titled Die Zukunft einer Illusion. Translation by W.D. Robson-Scott. Grinstein 260. With penciled owner inscription dated year of publication, occasional minor penciled marginalia.
Text fine; slight edge-wear, tiny bit of soiling to cloth. A near-fine copy.